HP Better Together: Top Entries and Winner!

Many thanks to everyone who entered the PoorerThanYou and HP Better Together Giveaway! The requirement to enter was to submit a piece of multimedia that relates to personal finance. Here are the top entries, in the order they were submitted. Remember, top entries were judged on the following:

Demonstration of a sound personal finance concept. Entries that were off topic or hard to understand were not considered.

Free of copyrighted material. This is difficult for me to verify, even though I’m a big copyright geek and now a lot of the rules. But I have vetted these to best of my ability. If I find out in the future that a top entry is in violation of US copyright law, it will be removed from this page.

Fun! This can be hard to do with personal finance, so I was a bit lax about this rule. But there were a few “downers” submitted, which was the opposite of what I wanted. Entries that looked on the sunny side of things were much more likely to make the cut.

Submissions after the “jump:”

Jim from Bargaineering came up with a slideshow to demonstrate how small savings each month can really add up! Click the image above to see what saving $1 – $500 per month could get you!

Photographer Charlie Doerner submitted this image of his for the contest. He describes it as “a photo illustration about the current american [sic] economy and how it effects our personal finances.”

Reeve made a video with tips on how he put himself through college. Way to go!

Andre Da Costa gives us a depiction of the College Lifecycle, “the demands of college life, the key elements that make up every students tertiary experience: Money, Textbooks, Time, Food (Ramen) and of course studying for your goal, with the root or starting point of all these things going back to Money and how you manage it to your advantage.”

Mrs4444 sent in a picture of her son with the new (to him!) car he worked for this summer. Saving up for a dependable used car when you’re in your teens is definitely a sound personal finance idea — way to go, Mrs4444’s son!

Barbara Baker’s video has 5 great tips that have helped her family manage their finances. (You may need to visit the video’s YouTube page to be able to read the text. Just click on the video twice and it should take you there!)

Harry T. shares this simply beautiful picture that he snapped at the corner of Wall Street and Broadway. He explains it as “1) As a place many college graduates think they’ll end up and 2) As a place many college students don’t understand.”

Jess presents some great tips on entering giveaways to win stuff you want. Although you don’t want to fill your home with stuff you don’t need, it’s good to see if you can win something before you go out and buy it!

Birute’s image of textbooks has some good tips on saving money when you buy them! Click the picture for a larger version if it’s hard to read.

Jess shows us the money her husband saved by buying his textbooks online! Jill very simply shows us that time is money!

Google’s “suggest” feature shows you what other people have recently search for that is similar to what you’ve started typing. Apoorv Gulati wonders if the change in people’s searches indicates that we’re coming out of the recession.

I may not agree with all of Richard’s Rules of College Finance/Life, but each campus is different! On mine, there were a lot of fun things to do, for free! But remember, if your campus has free fun stuff, it’s not really free. You’re just paying for it through your tuition!

Mike Piper of The Oblivious Investor made this simply great video about investing in index funds. It’s really easy to understand and sums up the two biggest reasons why index funds rock!

My friend and (sometimes) comic artist Dave Morgan spent a lot of time putting together this personal finance comic. It’s a very smart look at dealing with personal finance advice. See how many personal finance gurus you recognize! (Click the thumbnail above to view the full-size comic.)

Larry N. calls this a “quick sketch” that “represents a lot of people’s money problems, including mine.” Larry, if this is a quick sketch for you… I’m envious! (I never could draw…)

Nathan Cahill’s video about the dangers of debt in college feels very familiar to me — it’s almost as if he used my net worth graph to make it! (I don’t think he did. But my graph is very similar, and for a lot of the same reasons as in the video!)

Chad Oliver keeps this drawing on his bedroom wall to motivate himself to save money. Not a bad idea — maybe Chad will give his permission in the comments for others to print it out and use it that way, as well?

Auriette offers this illustration of the difference between making minimum payments and paying your credit card off in full. It’s a little hard to read, but in the top check, the bill is paid in full, and in the bottom the check is for only the minimum payment.

This short presentation is a must watch/read for anyone who’s buying textbooks for college!

The Winner

I hope you enjoyed checking out the contest entries as much as I did! There are even more good entries on the contest page. Even though not every submission made the cut, some of the other submissions might be helpful to you in your personal finance journey, so check them out!

There were 36 entries featured here as the “top entries.” Entering in 1-36 on Randomizer.org, the final winner is…

Your article on this blog is fantastic.
Well done! I’m a big fan of your blog and be sure to keep up the great work.
I plan on returning and linking to your site.
Sincerely,
Alan H.http://www.alanhaft.com

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About Stephonee

Stephonee (or "Stephanie" on her alcohol-purchasing-and-car-driving card) has been sharing her personal finances, observations, and real talk about money on Poorer Than You for 10 years - a third of her life.Learn more...

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